| Abstract: | To understand Aztec society most scholars have relied heavily on the rich and abundant documents written during the 16th and 17th centuries. But new archaeological fieldwork is yielding data that supplement the documents; it offers new insights into Aztec society that contribute to comparative studies of complex societies. Publications from 1989 to 1997 emphasize (1) chronologies based on archaeological evidence rather than texts; (2) the origins of the Aztecs and the nature of the preimperial period; (3) developmental sequences and internal organization of individual sites and polities; (4) the economies of households, communities, and regions; and (5) the impact of the Aztec empire on subject regions. |
